TNs from Ridge Lytton Springs winery/tasting room (11/9/13)

Some notes from our visit to Lytton Springs winery/tasting room a couple weeks ago. I posted an article on the static/blog pages as well, but with few specific tasting notes, as they are of more interest here.

2005 Lytton Springs Zinfandel: Slight bricking and light edges - looks a bit older than one might expect of '05, beautiful sweet red fruits and a bit of leather on the nose, and more of the same on the palate. This is truly at its peak, and one of the Zinfandels you might mistake for a classically-styled Napa Cab (like Frank Murray did at our Playground tasting). I wouldn’t let this age much more if it were in my cellar.

2011 Lytton Springs Zinfandel: (current release) A touch of toasty oak on the nose, but only 25% new oak used - basically just a timid nose, still young and tight. Beautiful texture, however, feels ‘long’ immediately on the palate. It’s silky, but not heavy - must more elegant but with a substantial feel to it. Another great finish on this wine - hard to go wrong with Lytton Springs, even in a tough vintage.

2008 Pagani Ranch Zinfandel: Looks like a current release - very dark, even to the edges. I got some chocolate on the nose of this one, but also beef stew and smoked meats, which meant I knew immediately Jen wouldn’t like it. More blue fruits than red, some bitterness but in a tannic sense. Weighty, a touch on the syrupy side in regards to the fruit, but not offensively so - very rich and deep overall in character. Fruit does not seem at all resolved yet - this is a big wine, in an awkward state, to me.

2010 Monte Bello: Deep purple color, very dark and primary. Dark chocolate on the nose, with blue fruits and a nice spicy character - smells ‘bright’ and fresh. Fantastic weight on this wine, and the ‘bigness’ dies off a bit right away, but the finish last quite long. Will be fantastic for many years, I’m sure, but really enjoyable now for those who love a primary stage of a well-made Cabernet. Jen’s favorite of the flight, by a long shot.

1995 Monte Bello: Smells SO much like Bordeaux - briney, graphite, leather, red fruits, and a touch of barnyard. In a blind tasting, more than half experienced wine tasters would guess Bordeaux, I’m sure. Acidity is still holding very strong on this wine, and the finish is extremely long. Fantastic old school California excellence with Cabernet Sauvignon, simply. Loved it.

We left the tasting room after signing up for the Monte Bello Collector club.

I’ve been to the Lytton tasting room many times and have always enjoyed it. I still say that the Monte Bello Collector club (futures) is the key to the world’s best value in fine cab/cab blend wine. Another benefit of the club is the outstanding “Assemblege Tastings” in the Spring. I was a Ridge fanatic even before I was a wine fanatic.

Long lost post with a follow up from me. We did one of the tours a month ago. We were there from about 2-5. They took us out through the vineyard in a golf cart and showed us the different sections as well as the differnt platings.

We finished the tour with a private tasting upstairs overlooking the tasting room. I am not, and never will be, a note guy, but it suppose since it was late in the day, our host opened quite a few wines for us to sample including two different vintages of mb. I believe it was the 95 and 10 as well. We tasted though many of the zins as well as some of the other cab francs, Syrah, and chards.

I can say I am a huge fan of the zins with a few years of age on them. The difference between the current release and 4-5 years back was amazing. I don’t care for any of the chards and the other varietals were in my ok category. Not bad, but nothing I am going out of my way for.

The mb, well now that’s where they shine in my opinion. I believe by the time we left (May have been the last group out that night). We had tasted through three different vintages back to 95.

I immediately signed up for 6 bottles of the futures. The zins I can find to my satisfaction through retail, and I split my limited zin drinking between bedrock, turley, and ridge. I am not sure I can pick a favorite…oddly enough the least expensive of each of their offerings is the best to me. The “single vineyard” zins all seem way overpowered and closed.

Overall a very nice experience for a large scale winery, and decent value in the wines.

I always seem to get a spicy, resinous, dark chocolate on Ridges’ cabernet.

Great notes, thanks.

I was there this weekend. Agree on the 2011 Lytton Springs- a very pretty wine that I think will pick up some weight over time. The Monte Bello 2010 was a nice sneak peak- can’t imagine going anywhere near that for some time if I owned any.